Pulp Matrix
by ghettoneo
Summary: pulp fiction meets the matrix in a twisted thriller drama


TITLE: Pulp Matrix

AUTHOR: GhettONEo AKA: D. Smith  
  
RATING: R for vilence and breif adult language 

SUMMARY: pulp fiction meets the matrix in a twisted thriller drama

SPOILERS: none

CATEGORIES: drama, action, crossover

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header

this will be my second short story i've written. from the title you can probably tell, this will have a pulp fiction feel as the story jumps around following a puzzeling event and strange encounter inside the matrix

hopefully it gets a good response!

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SUNDAY  
  
In the background Marvin Gay's "lets get it on" plays quietly as to not wake my wife. This was my favorite song at a time in my life. A time when I was much more naive. When I didn't question if Marvin Gay ever existed or if the Cd I'm listening to it on is really there.  
  
I hum the words softly as I pull the cold steel slide back and cock the hammer into the fire position. my hand trembles around the handle of my Smith and Wesson 40 cal. pistol.  
  
The song starts over as I put it on repeat to calm my nerves. After what I've seen in the last week, I doubt my nerves will ever be calm again.  
  
I contemplate putting the barrel of my S&W down my throat and pulling the trigger. But my curiosity as to when this nightmare ends wont allow me to do so.  
  
My original plan returns to my head and I set the steps I've been planing into motion.  
  
One foot in front of the other, step by step, I make my way back to our bed room where my wife peacefully sleeps. The love ballad from decades, maybe centuries ago, continues to play. as I reach for the door handle my previous thought of suicide crosses my mind again. After all I've already been dead once this week. But that thought quickly passes. I turn the knob and enter our room. I'm silent as I enter and I can no longer hear the words to the song. I don't need to hear the words. I've listened to this verse so many times it's as though the song plays inside my head.  
  
"There's nothin wrong with me  
  
Lovin you---  
  
And givin yourself to me can never be wrong  
  
If the love is true"  
  
I take the seat next to the bed and wipe a tear from my eye. I know what I'm going to do next, it's not what I'm going to do that worries me. it's what happens after that.  
  
I point the pistol at my wife's head. I'm shaking uncontrollably as I think of what comes next.  
  
With one finger on the trigger. I move my left hand towards my wife's shoulder. My tears now cloud my vision, but not enough to blur the reality of what I may do next.  
  
I place hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Honey, wake up." my voice shutters "baby. baby, get up"  
  
As her eyes slowly open she stares down the barrel of my 40 cal and it only takes milla-seconds for her to realize who's holding the pistol.  
  
"DAVID!??!? NO!!!" she shouts.  
  
------------------------------------------------------  
  
SUNDAY-ONE WEEK EARLIER  
  
"What up dog?" I shout to a friend as I roll down the tinted window of my new luxury coupe.  
  
"What up pimp?" he replies with a smile bigger than his face.  
  
"Is this yours??!!"  
  
"You know it man. Hop in I'll give you a ride. Where you going?"  
  
He motions in the direction I'm headed "up to the store, pickin up some blunt wraps"  
  
This is a friend I would only consider an acquittance now due to my growth in maturity and his lack of such.  
  
"Man this fool at the club was actin a ass last night, boy" he continues "so, me and my niggaz knocked this cat flat out"  
  
I just shake my head as to not further the conversation  
  
This is the type of situations I've grown out of. But it's not that easy for some to get rid of bad habits  
  
Ss we pull into the convenient store I slide my Marvin Gay Cd in and put on "let's get it on"  
  
"Grab me a coke." I request as my former road dog steps out of my ride.  
  
I slowly nod to the beat as Marvin croons the song of sex. My mind drifts to the old days with niggas like the one I'm giving a ride and quickly forwards to the life I now have with my lovely wife Connie. A life with a new home two new luxury cars and great job. My thoughts are quickly interrupted with a loud explosion. my mind races, was it a tire blowing out? Then I see people flooding out of the store.  
  
I sit for only a moment until i decide to see what's the ruckus inside. As I enter the sliding door the familiar ring enters my ears again. This time I knew what is causing the loud sound.  
  
I watch my friend drop clutching his chest into a pool of his own blood. The "fool from the club" stands black eyed and brandishing a revolver. He turns and aims and fires two rounds through my chest. I can feel the burn enter and exit my torso riping my back as it leaves my body. I can feel consciousness leaving me and I let go.  
  
As my eyes open, expecting to see a bright light at the end of the tunnel, all I see is red. Red liquid! I'm surrounded by it. Trying to move I discover I'm in a ziploc baggy filled with pink slime. I close my eyes again hoping when I open them I'm not still where I'm at now.  
  
-------------------------------------------------------  
  
SUNDAY-ONE WEEK EARLIER-AGAIN  
  
I'm sitting in the leather seat of my car again?!?!  
  
"What up pimp?" he replies with a smile bigger than his face  
  
"Is this yours??!!"  
  
I feel my chest no holes no blood and the man I just watched being gunned down in the store only moments ago is now leaning in my window.  
  
"You know it man. Hop in I'll give you a ride. Where you going?"  
  
He motions in the direction I'm headed "up to the store, pickin up some blunt wraps"  
  
"Man this fool at the club was actin a ass last night, boy" he continues "so, me and my niggaz knocked this cat flat out"  
  
I'm still confused and have no interest in what he's saying.  
  
"You ever have deja vu man?" I ask  
  
"What man, you look zoned dog, I thought quit gettin high" he says laughing  
  
"I ain't jokin, I swear I just took you to the store!"  
  
"If you just took me to the store, why ain't I got no wrap for this green in my pocket?" he replies smugly.  
  
"You never came out of the store" I tell him, wondering how true what I'm saying is.  
  
"Your crazy as fuck dog, Connie's messin up your head."  
  
"I guess" I mummer  
  
As we pull into the convenient store I slide my Marvin Gay CD in and put on "let's get it on"  
  
"Grab me a coke." I request as my former road dog steps out of my ride.  
  
I slowly nod to the beat as Marvin croons the song of sex. My mind drifts to the old days with niggas like the one I'm giving a ride and quickly forwards to the life I now have with my lovely wife Connie. A life with a new home two new luxury cars and great job. My thoughts are quickly interrupted with a loud explosion. My mind races, was it a tire blowing out? This time I KNOW what the sound is. I've been here before, and as I think if the events of the next five minutes, my body just moves in the direction of emanate fate.  
  
But, this time as I reach for my door handle a man sits himself in my car and says  
  
"It's too late to help him and you know this". The man is dressed in all black, with dark shades. He's a tall thin white man with black hair and a strange trustworthy voice. "Put the car in drive and don't stop moving until I'm finished telling you what I'm here to say"  
  
"My name is Neo, did you see me here when you got shot?"  
  
I'm so confused now I can do nothing but shake my head no.  
  
"I was trying to contact you only moments ago when we detected a glitch in the system. Not only was the time reset to before you were shot but there was another change made that we haven't discovered yet."  
  
"What was that baggy full of pink goo I was in?" I ask, as it is the only question in my mind  
  
"That'll be answered later, it's not important right now." he says quite sure of himself "the only thing important now, is finding out why they saved you"  
  
Saved me? They? I'm so lost I just drive.  
  
"Have you ever drove this road out of the city?" he asks  
  
"No" I reply  
  
"Keep going then, I want to show you some thing"  
  
I leave the city headed west past the industrial ring of town. Past the farms. Past the pastures and to a sign in the road that says "road closed ahead"  
  
"Where do I go now?" I ask him  
  
"You keep going"  
  
As I pass the sign a light flashes that almost feels like it's in my head. I look in the rear view and see the sign I just passed, only this time it's facing the other way. I look forward and see another sign  
  
sr 71 east  
  
East??!!??  
  
I was just headed west. I ask the strange man just to confirm my erred train of thought.  
  
"Was you?"  
  
But I hadn't even spoke yet!! It was as though he read my mind.  
  
"Turn around and do it again, see what happens!"  
  
Past the farms. Past the pastures and to a sign in the road that says "road closed ahead"  
  
"Where do i go now?" I ask him  
  
"You know"  
  
As I pass the sign a light flashes that almost feels like it's in my head. I look in the rear view and see the sign I just passed, once again it's facing the other way. I look forward and see another sign  
  
sr 71 east  
  
"I cant leave the city, can I?" I think out loud  
  
He shakes his head, "no".  
  
"Am I sleeping?" I ask, hoping he'll say yes  
  
He smirks "you could say that"  
  
-------------------------------------------------------------  
  
TUESDAY  
  
Two days ago I died. I was brought back to life. I was told i never had a life. Now I'm a terrorist.  
  
What i did yesterday is a blur of unrealistic memories. There's noway I did what I remember doing. In my days of gang bangin I'd never seen anything like that. I walked into that club with all intentions to handle this meeting cleanly.  
  
Agent Brown misled me though as to what would really go down when I got there.  
  
He said all he wanted to do was talk to me about the man that has been visiting me named Neo. But when I got there he seamed to have a totally different motive.  
  
He told me I was in cohorts with a terrorist and that I'd also been hacking a government computer program. Both of which I had no idea I was doing. For some odd reason I trusted the man he said was a terrorist more than I trusted him.  
  
That's why I did what I did.

That's not important now. What was important was getting to my old neighbor hood and finding a old acquaintance. A guy named Rock, a thug that had a good reputation as a hood entrepreneur. And if he's any thing like I remember he'll have exactly what I need.  
  
knock knock  
  
"Who's there?"  
  
"It's David, open up dog"  
  
"Yeah fucking right!"  
  
"It's me hurry man"  
  
As he opens the door he wraps me up with a huge bear hug. "Where the heck you been. People sayin you got with that woman and turned all soft."  
  
"I did turn all soft but it's time to throw all that out the window. I don't have time to explain that now. what I came here for was to make some purchases."  
  
"Follow me"  
  
As we walk up stairs through a long hall I watch Rock's dreadlocks sway from side to side. Rock was a George Clinton look a like living in a home that looked like it had been decorated by Rick James. We pass a room where Rock's wife Tina was in cuttin cocaine and listening to an Ohio players record dancing. I can hear rollercoster of love still playing in the background when we reach the end of the long hall to a door. The door has a sign that reads "no trespassing, violators will be shot, survivors will be shot again". When he turns the lock and swings the door open my jaw nearly hits the floor. The room looks like a police lock up. Guns on 3 big tables and every wall.  
  
"Is this what you want?!?!" he say enthusiastically.  
  
"Exactly what I was looking for"  
  
"So how much you lookin for, I got that gold desert eagle from Charlie's angels two I can sell you for about fifteen hundred."  
  
"I'll take that and whatever else I can get for ten g's"  
  
"sssshhhhhhhhoooooooo!!!! whoo weee, that's a lil suspicious to me Dave. I haven't seen you with a pistol since... since like 97, and now you march in here wantin ten thousand dollars worth of hot heaters and you don't expect me to be a lil weary?"  
  
"Make it fifteen" his suspicions go out the window when my duffel bag hits the table and fifteen thousand dollars in cash spills out.  
  
"For fifteen you can take whatever you can hold"  
  
"Thanks man, I got a feeling I'm gona NEED everything I can hold."  
  
I pour the rest of the cash onto the table and start loading up with enough guns and ammo to take down the middle east. I finish packing up the bag with bullets and banana clips, and head towards the door of the gun room.  
  
So Dave, you know I gotta ask. what the hell you planing on doing, goin' postal, killin some cops, what?? I mean with what you just bought you could take this whole city out.  
  
"I might have to! I don't know if i should say anything. I've learned not to trust anyone. It's not about you but the world just ain't what it seems."  
  
"I don't know about you man, I'm glad your on my side!!"  
  
"I really hope so".  
  
As he slides the lock back closed on the big door the click of a hammer being cocked behind my head focuses my thoughts like only a loaded gun can. I turn in time to watch Rock being executed at point blank range. The world begins to move in slow motion as warm blood splatters my face and the wall behind me. I can hear the 70's classic still playing in the background as I piece togature the puzzle that has suddenly fell in my lap. Either Tina is dead or the man who's face has yet to come into focus is Tina.  
  
"Mr Smith, you left our meeting rather hastily yesterday. I wasn't finished"  
  
"Agent Brown I had no intentions in finishing our conversation and I still have no intentions of doing so."  
  
After what I saw yesterday I knew there was little I could do to hold off agent brown and my reflexes took control only this time my reflexes seemed to be a few seconds ahead of my mind.  
  
Before I had even thought about swinging I had already knocked the gun out of my face and into the corner. As my mind realized that brown was unarmed my body had already began evasive maneuvers and had drawn my weapon. I duck into a room in the hall and cock the 24 kt desert eagle. As I hear the heavy foot steps approach I decide not to wait for the man to appear in the doorway to kill me. Instead I aim at the wall where I know the mans head would be and as he walks into my estimated range i squeeze the trigger repeatedly. The foot steps stop and a heavy thud hits the floor right where I'd expected. I swing the door to the room where I'd been hiding back open expecting to see Agent Brown lying there lifeless. Much to my horror the dead body at my feet was that of Rocks wife Tina. As I look through the hall holding my old friend and his wife's cold bodies I decide I shouldn't wait there to see what happens next.  
  
I hit the stop button on the record player as this doesn't feel like the right time for 70's funk. I can here sirens approaching as I duck out the front door and away from the neighborhood I once called home.  
  
It was scenes like this that had completely altered my sense reality and my morals. I would have been a little emotional if I did that a week ago but I knew that life was different now. It's kill or be killed and I'm not ready to die today.  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
SATURDAY  
  
She should be home when I get there. I wonder if she knows what I know? I wonder if she knows that I know? What should I do? I cant just hand her over. I love her. How do I know what these people are telling me is real? How do I know if anything is real. I hope I make it home. I cant see anything, it's raining so hard. I hope this trip isn't like Thursday. I cant believe this week. Maybe I went crazy. Maybe Neo the oracle all those agents, maybe there all in my head. I wish I would have died. Maybe I am dead. What if I have to kill the only thing I love in this world. If I'm not crazy I'm quickly driving myself crazy.  
  
As anyone can see my thoughts are all over the place. Probably much like my driving right now. Although I cant tell where I'm at on the road due to the rain drops which seem the size of golf balls. Making this trip back into town was the hardest decision I've made this week. I wanted to just sit in the cabin and hope this was all a dream. But I knew better than anything I've known in my life, that this, was not a dream.  
  
I'm scared. Not of the agents or another car Chase scene strait out of a action movie. I'm scared of the decision I have to make. I know I have to tell Connie what's happened in the last week. How am I supposed to do that?? Yeah honey, my whole life's not real and your going to play a part in the end of the only thing that may mater in this strange world.  
  
I should be home some time Sunday morning. I still don't know what to do.  
  
---------------------------------------  
  
THURSDAY  
  
Why wont this car go any fucking faster. My head jerks back hard as the so called "agent" slams the rear end of my luxury car. The car I just discovered wasn't as fast as the commercials say it is. The bumper takes another bone jarring hit before dislodging it's self onto the road and under the wheels of the agents caprice. I wonder,.. is that covered in my insurance policy?  
  
I throw the empty Uzi in the passenger seat out the window and reach into my duffel bag in search for another weapon. Damn it! 3 guns, the gold desert eagle, a tech 9 with a few clips and my S&W 40 cal. I tuck my S&W in my belt and have my thoughts interrupted momentarily by bullets exiting my windshield from the hole that used to be the back window. I stick the extended clip in the tech 9 and toss the desert eagle in the seat next to me. My car's now smoking terribly and both mine and agent Browns cars are riddled with bullet holes. Any person passing by on this road must have thought we had just came out of a war zone.  
  
Another bullet nearly misses my head and shatters the rear view mirror as sharp shards of glass sprinkle my lap and the passenger seat. I swerve into a car next to me as the glass deflects off my face and slices my cheek. The car flies off the road and explodes in a fiery burst only Hollywood could produce, but this ain't no movie. I put the loaded automatic pistol over my shoulder and began to unload the clip. The clip empties with no results. I insert another 30 shots and repeat step one. Once again to no avail every shot had been dodged by the inhuman agent. My last clip then it's down to the desert eagle. As I began to unload the last of the bullets the tech 9 jams and I'm left with no chance.  
  
The agent uses a move Ive seen before on TV cop shows time and time again and I knew I had no way to avoid the maneuver. He hit my car in the left rear behind the tire and the car begins to spin. I bash the automatic gun against the steering wheel in a last ditch effort to dislodge the jammed shell. It worked!!! As the spin completes, I'm window to window with the agent. I time it perfectly and release the last bursts of ammo held in the gun shattering the window in his driver side. As he tries to swerve away I spit the last bullets into his tires instantly shredding them. His disabled Chevy dodges accost the path of my now backward spinning sedan, and smashes the side rail, flipping end over end into the deep ditch in a spectacular acrobatic display and explodes into a fiery wreck. As I try to regain control of my car the wheel catches the pavement and starts to flip.  
  
I watch the car crush around me as it flips helplessly in the street. As the tumble comes to a stop, roof down, I feel my body up and down surprised to find I'm still in one piece. I look out the window only to see the wheels of what look to be a pick up truck. And when the door swings open my fears are confirmed. A black dress shoe steps out followed by what I knew was the agents leg. I struggle with the seat belt still restraining me upside down to get to my gun. Then I look at the roof below me and see the gold desert eagle. I grab the hand cannon just as the agents feet reach my window. When he ducks down expecting to find my lifeless body, he finds himself face to face with the barrel of the gleaming pistol.  
  
BOOM  
  
When I drag myself out of the wreckage, I see the body of the man who is no longer a agent. I hop behind the wheel of his 4x4 and drive off towards my cabin. The road now looks unusually empty. The rest of the trip is smooth. I think about the agent I've killed four or more times this week and about Sunday morning when I get to see Connie again. My thoughts drift and the motor hums as I continue my trip into seclusion.  
  
---------------------------------------  
  
MONDAY  
  
"Mr. Smith your late." the agent states in a stern voice. "I'm a very busy man."  
  
"I'm sorry agent brown. I've been trying to contact my wife she's out of town on a business trip and I haven't been able to reach her."  
  
"Mr Smith do you know why your here?"  
  
"Here in this meeting with you, or, here as in still alive?"  
  
I twiddle the plain white business card with the name "Agent Brown" printed on the front and the address of this coffee shop, slash, techno rave bar printed on the reverse. After the day I had yesterday, waking up with what appeared to be a business card of a federal agent stuck in my front door was no surprise.  
  
"So your aware of the glitch"  
  
The way he uttered the statement led me to believe that it was not a question directed towards me as much as a question to himself. By this time I had assumed I was here to answer his questions and will not be receiving any answers of my own. In reality the only reason I was even there was to get some answers. Answers I feel I may never get.  
  
"Mr Smith, our records show you came in contact with a Mr Thomas A Anderson yesterday shortly after the glitch. Are you aware that your new acquaintance is a wanted terrorist?"  
  
"I don't know any Thomas Anderson." I began to speak and was quickly interrupted by the agent.  
  
"Ah yes. You may know the man by the alias Neo, he is a very dangerous man and very elusive as well. Mr Smith we also have in our vast records of your history, that you have made many visits to an Internet site that is directly connected to a government facility, that you Mr Smith, have no reason to be accessing."  
  
He tossed a folder with all of my web login dates and site addresses onto the table infront of me. Many of the site addresses were highlighted and as I began to look over the highlighted sites I quickly realized this was the private chat my wife and I use to talk when she's away on her frequent business trips. I noticed that the last highlighted entry was from my login only 20 minutes ago when I attempted to fill my wife in on yesterdays circumstances.  
  
"This isn't a government site. That's me and my wife's private chat room for when she's on business"  
  
"Business. Yes, your wife is away on business as we speak, correct Mr Smith?"  
  
"Yeah so what? What does she have to do with this? Matter of fact, how do you know so much about me? This is private information your holding! You cant invade me and my wife's life like this!"  
  
"Invade your privacy? Invade your life? We, Mr Smith are the reason you still have your life."  
  
"What? That's it Agent Brown this meeting is over!"  
  
"I'm sorry Mr Smith but it's not gonna be that easy."  
  
"You act like I don't have a choice."  
  
"Quite the contrary, were going to give you a choice Mr Smith". He paused with a evil smirk on his face "You can help us find Mr Anderson and your wife or, you can die."  
  
The handing over Neo I could have went with, but my wife? There's no way I could do this. as I rose out of the seat agent Brown quickly stood. His freshly pressed suit fit snugly against his frame exposing the silhouette of the giant hand cannon on his side. Knowing that he was armed made my next move even harder to do than what I was expecting when I first stood.  
  
"Sit down Mr Smith!!"  
  
As the words left his lips the right hook I had swung was dodged as he grabbed my fist and forearm and tossed me across the table we had just occupied. When I rolled over to asses the situation the agent was air borne and flying towards me. I rolled out of the way as his fist crashed through the floor. I used the opportunity to sweep the agents feet out from under him and was quickly to my feet. My reflexes seemed instant if not ahead of my thought process. While the agent was down I grabbed the 50. cal desert eagle form his holster. What happened next just added to the list of unbelievable events in the last two days. I shot repeatedly and to my dismay the agent seemed to dematerialize in front of my eyes. I drop the pistol and the agent is already to his feet in front of me.  
  
"I'm very disappointed in you Mr Smith. I figured you'd be grateful for your future existence. Mr Anderson and your so called wife's life should be a small price to pay for your own. I will never understand you humans emotion you call love."  
  
"You humans?" As i spoke the phrase I saw the gleam of latex and chrome behind agent Brown. He obviously felt the dark haired leather clad woman's presence behind him as well. He spun around in time to see the spark of light from the gun just before his lifeless body hit the floor. By the time it hit the floor though the body no longer resembled the agent I was just speaking with.  
  
"How... I mean, I was just....How..." The words wouldn't come out, as I struggled with what I believed was reality.  
  
"What just happened" I asked the woman dressed in all black leather "and who are you??"  
  
"My name's trinity and we don't have time for that now agent Brown will be back soon and neither one of us want to be hanging around for that, trust me. Neo will be to see you soon. You need to run now."  
  
I had no doubt in what she said and made a bee-line for the exit. I look back at the woman and see the bartender peeking over the counter in dismay. As I hit the door and took a double take at the woman and the bartender several bullets hit the door nearly missing my head. I see the spot where the bartender was standing is now occupied by agent Brown. I wasted no time getting to my car and out of there.  
  
--------------------------  
  
WEDNESDAY  
  
ring  
  
ring  
  
RING  
  
RING  
  
As I roll over over in the bed and reach for the phone a loud dense thud from the receiver reminds me that I have a gold desert eagle duct taped to my hand. The sound of the telephone also brought the grim reminder of where I was, smack dab in the middle of a nightmare! The unknown voice on the other end of the phone helped confirm this.  
  
"Do you know who this is?"  
  
"No," I replied, "but I'm sure you know who I am."  
  
"Yes David, I do know who you are and I've been monitoring you since Neo noticed the constant glitch being caused by your signal."  
  
"My signal? Who are you?"  
  
"My name is Morpheus, and you David are in extreme danger. A world that you could never imagine is in a war that you would never understand. As a result trinity, Neo, or myself will not be able to assist you. "  
  
"Assist me with what?"  
  
"Please be patient and let me finish, time is of the essence. Your not safe in the city. Agents are desperately seeking out your guardian as we speak and once she's been deleted..."  
  
"Is this about my wife???"  
  
"NO! It's about you! once she's been deleted you'll be right back in there hands and we cant allow that.  
  
Were being traced so I cant speak any longer but I've set up a safe house for you until you can make contact with a friend of mine and ultimately the guardian."  
  
"But wait I need to know what's going on....."  
  
By the time the statement had left my lips, my ear was ringing with the dial tone and was closely followed by the sound of an envelope being slid through my mail box. I quickly ripped the package open and read the contents  
  
A small slip of paper that reads;  
  
Limbo Farms

3.7 miles past the city limits N  
SAFE TILL 7:32PM SATURDAY  
  
HURRY!!!  
  
As if i needed the added emphasis on the last line! I grabbed essentials and ran for the door. I was no more than a block away before I saw the neighborhood in my rear view being barricaded off by the so called "agents".  
  
Needless to say, I didn't go back to see if everything was alright.  
  
-----------------------------------------------  
  
FRIDAY  
  
"I don't usually make house calls David but I made an acception for your case. I'm afraid your life's not what you think it is. And what your mind could show an adversary could be catastrophic."  
  
As I looked at the withered shell of a woman. Her black skin wrinkled and covered with freckles, her gray hair flailing wildly, i wondered...who is this?  
  
"I am the oracle, and you don't need to know how I know what you were thinking .... lets just say I have a knack for these things."  
  
"The next thing you want to know is, is this world real but at the same time you already know it's not so why waste time on that one."  
  
She takes a draw from her cigarette and continues.  
  
"I have a lot of information for you to comprehend so I want you to absorb this knowledge and take it for what you think it's worth...... are you ready?"  
  
"I think so." I replied, not knowing if there was another acceptable answer.  
  
"Your life's not real, your mind's in Kansas baby but you body's still plugged in back in oz. There's nothing you can do to change that right now, Neo and Trinity are working on that as we speak. The agents want your guardian , but they have no idea that without you the guardians work, she's worthless. The guardian is a intuitive program much like myself, she was designed and built for one reason. To discover the "light at the end of the tunnel". Every since this world was built the machines.... oh yeah sorry to have to tell you this way darlin' but machines run the world now."  
  
"So the world I saw outside that pod was...."  
  
"Real? Yes, realer that everyone in it wishes it was. Anyway, every since this world was built the machines have been studding human behavior and there was two things that baffled them, one is being taken care now by Neo. The other, your on the verge of helping them discover, and if the agents find you before Neo reaches his destiny there could be serious repercussions. The machines never understood the human belief of an afterlife. So in a quest to understand this human acceptance of death, they ran many tests that turned out to be failures. But your testing has led to massive break trough's, matter o' fact your program is complete. If you had died one more time last week we would have been to late. Neo noticed the glitch in your signal and after tracing your pattern back discovered that your signal had been repeating the same week in a receptive loop for some time now."  
  
"What happens now then?"  
  
"You'll be deleted just like any Ginni pig the system uses. But there's a problem. Your guardian is refusing to hand in her reports on the research?"  
  
"My guardian is Connie isn't it?"  
  
"I'm afraid so and once she hands over that research she'll be deleted to. and she knows it "  
  
"She wont hand me over. She loves me! She'd never do something like that."  
  
"Sorry honey, but the machines and programs haven't learned how to love yet."

So she'll just hand me over to be killed??? I dont belive that, i wont belive it!

"I'm afraid she'll have no choice. She'd do what ever it takes to get a chance at exile and handing you over could be her only chance and I'm afraid she might be aware of this"  
  
"I'm not going to let that happen. I can't!!!"  
  
"No you can't !! If they capture you they could solve the mystery of afterlife.... and ruin that to."  
  
"You cant make it to heaven without a soul. Do the machines think it's some place like Nevada you can just find on the map?"  
  
"Your exactly right, that's why YOUR so important. Your soul is gonna give a hitchhiker a ride to the pearly gates and your the only one who can stop it."  
  
"And I will"  
  
"Well it was nice meeting you David sorry bout the bad news, oh well, you seem like a strong willed man. Maybe I'll see you at them gates some day"  
  
"Sorry to say oracle, but I'm going to prevent that by all means necessary"  
  
"That's what I like to hear"  
  
--------------------------------------  
  
SUNDAY (again)  
  
In the background Marvin Gay's "lets get it on" plays quietly as to not wake my wife. This was my favorite song at a time in my life. A time when I was much more naive. When I didn't question if Marvin Gay ever existed or if the CD I'm listening to it on is really there.  
  
I hum the words softly as I pull the cold steel slide back and cock the hammer into the fire position. My hand trembles around the handle of my Smith and Wesson 40 cal. pistol.  
  
The song starts over as I put it on repeat to calm my nerves. After what I've seen in the last week, I doubt my nerves will ever be calm again.  
  
I contemplate putting the barrel of my S&W down my throat and pulling the trigger. But my curiosity as to when this nightmare ends wont allow me to do so.  
  
My original plan returns to my head and I set the steps I've been planing into motion  
  
One foot in front of the other, step by step, I make my way back to our bed room where my wife peacefully sleeps. The love ballad from decades, maybe centuries ago, continues to play. As I reach for the door handle my previous thought of suicide crosses my mind again. After all I've already been dead once this week. But that thought quickly passes. I turn the knob and enter our room. I'm silent as I enter and I can no longer hear the words to the song. I don't need to hear the words. I've listened to this verse so many times it's as though the song plays inside my head.  
  
"There's nothin wrong with me  
  
Lovin you---  
  
And givin yourself to me can never be wrong  
  
If the love is true"  
  
I take the seat next to the bed and wipe a tear from my eye. I know what I'm going to do next, it's not what I'm going to do that worries me. It's what happens after that.  
  
I point the pistol at my wife's head. I'm shaking uncontrollably as I think of what comes next.  
  
With one finger on the trigger. I move my left hand towards my wife's shoulder. My tears now cloud my vision, but not enough to blur the reality of what I may do next.  
  
I place hand on her shoulder.  
  
"Honey, wake up." my voice shutters "baby. baby, get up"  
  
As her eyes slowly open she stares down the barrel of my 40 cal and it only takes milla-seconds for her to realize who's holding the pistol  
  
"DAVID!??!? NO!!!" she shouts  
  
"What are you doing??" she asks in a panicked voice. "Put that gun down!!"  
  
"No Connie. I'm sorry, I cant do that."  
  
"I'm your wife! What do you think your doing?"  
  
The Cd's been skipping for about 3 minutes now and her puddle of blood is now dripping off the bed and onto the floor. The tick of the clock seems just as loud as the gun shots still ringing in my ear. I knew Brown would be here soon and all I could do now was wait  
  
"There's nothin wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong ....."  
  
As the door swung open I cocked the dead chamber full of a 40. cal slug. When agent Browns foot graced the door way and he saw the scene, there was no motion towards his pistol, as if he knew my intentions. Like he knew my next move.  
  
"......wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong wrong ...."  
  
Smoke left the barrel of my gun and the CD stopped skipping as the radio exploded into pieces of burning plastic and charred converters. The agent stood unflinching in the door way holding his stance like a California red wood.  
  
"You shouldn't destroy such a nice piece of electrical equipment Mr Smith. you never know when the machine might take it's revenge."  
  
"Your nothing agent Brown, but a hitchhiker and I cant give you ride if I AIN'T GOIN THAT WAY!!"  
  
"Not going my way? Everything go's my way Mr Smith. I'm going to have to ask you to come with me."  
  
"Your not taking nothing else from me!" I declared as I released the last shot of the clip into my temple.  
  
With this statement and my last seconds of vision I seen something I had never encountered with agent Brown before... surprise.

I don't think you can buy your own ticket to heaven.  
-------------------------------------------  
  
I take a deep breath of the stalest air I've ever tasted and sink into the most uncomfortable leather seat Ive ever felt and waited for the break in the silence to smack me right in the face.  
  
"What up pimp?" he replies with a smile bigger than his face  
  
"Is this yours??!!"  
  
I put my head in my hands knowing the hole I just put there was gone.  
  
"You wanna go to the store for some wraps, right?"  
  
"Uhhhh... Yeah but how did you....."  
  
"You ever have deja vu man?" I ask  
  
"What man, you look zoned dog, I thought quit gettin high" he says laughing  
  
"Well take it for what's worth but I think you should go to a different store!"  
  
"Your crazy as fuck dog, Nina's messin up your head."  
  
THE END


End file.
